Dolly and us

It look a few years of living in East Tennessee to fully comprehend what Dolly meant to the people. Shortly after Eleanor got accepted into graduate school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, we learned the university was presenting Dolly Parton an honorary doctorate. I knew Dolly Parton for her music and as a pop culture icon. The university’s website featured a publicity photo of Parton in her rhinestone version of academic regalia. Reading the press release of this event was my introduction to Dolly’s Imagination Library, a non profit that gives free picture books to kids from birth to their fifth birthday. I started working for the university toward the end of my second year living in Knoxville. My coworkers loved Dolly, and their kids were getting Imagination Library books. As a celebrity, she had a very carefully controlled public image, but I admired how she used her platform and her dollars, too. Our time in Tennessee coincided with a few notable events. After a 2016…